I’ve been out on vacation for a few days, so I can’t pretend to be entirely up on the news. But I did hear that former ambassador Jon Huntsman says he can’t compete in the Iowa caucuses because he’s opposed to ethanol subsidies.

Somebody better tell Tim Pawlenty. The former Minnesota governor, who has more riding on Iowa than most other candidates, called for scaling back ethanol subsidies. Not only that, but he did it in his presidential campaign kickoff speech, right here in Des Moines. Maybe Huntsman needs to catch up on the news, too.

Huntsman adviser John Weaver formerly advised John McCain, who skipped Iowa for the same reason in 2000. It was a bad idea then and an even worse one now. McCain didn’t do much in Iowa in the 2008 cycle, but he at least campaigned here before winning the nomination.

Huntsman could have come up with a variety of excuses for skipping Iowa. That he chose ethanol suggests he’s out of touch. If Sen. Chuck Grassley is willing to scale back ethanol subsidies, it can’t be such an alien concept to Iowa Republicans.

That Huntsman apparently doesn’t know that means he’s probably right on one point: He wouldn’t do very well in Iowa. It also means he won’t do very well in a lot of other states, besides.